Knights beat Kitchener 8-5

Rangers goalie Brandon Maxwell got up and gave the London Knights star a mighty, two-hand, stay-out-of-my-crease kind of shove.

These days, the Knights don't get their revenge with fists, body checks or acts of goonery.

They start lighting up the scoreboard.

Little more than a minute after that second-period dust-up, Daniel Erlich grabbed a Chris MacKinnon turnover, scooted in for a breakaway goal and the Knights rolled up an eight-spot on Maxwell in a series-opening 8-5 victory before 8,865 Thursday night at the John Labatt Centre.

The Knights have scored 22 goals in their past three playoff games.

They answer any kind of adversity with even more offence.

They struck 10 seconds into the game. They've scored first in every post-season outing so far.

"We get pumped up before the game," said a smiling Erlich. "Everyone gets into it in the room, Everyone has input. It's not just the veterans. We make sure we're ready to go."

And it shows.

Erlich has seven goals in six playoff games. He previousy had three in his first 17 post-season contests.

"Shoot the puck," he said. "That's all there is to it. But we can't get too big about ourselves (and how could he?). It's only 1-0."

The Rangers left Maxwell in for all eight goals.

The Knights scored nine last year in Kitchener on Parker Van Buskirk and Mike Morrison.

They popped a shocking nine against Steve Mason in his first game back at the JLC after being traded to the Rangers on Jan. 20, 2008.

There are some similarities here.

"Steve Mason and Brandon Maxwell are the same kind of competitors," Kitchener head coach Steve Spott said. "I remember us asking Steve in that one if he wanted to come out and he said, 'Absolutely not.' The same goes for Brandon. I didn't dare think of taking him out.

"He had a few that I know he'd like to have back but it's a six-man unit out there. We weren't beat on the power play. Seven (even strength goals) are unacceptable. He got the Bronx cheer from 9,000 people here but you've got to be careful when you do that do a kid like Brandon."

It could serve as personal puckstopping fuel for an intense goalie who only gave up 12 goals in six first-round games against Saginaw.

He's already two-thirds of the way there through one game against London.

"We all know he didn't have the best game we've ever see him play," Erlich said, "and the kind of goalie he is, he'll use that to get himself fired up. We know that and have to be ready."

The Rangers haven't won in London since Jan 10, 2008, 10 days before the Mason mashing. That's eight straight JLC defeats - one for every Knights goal on Thursday.

Kadri was still on the Rangers the last time Kitchener won here. He practised all week with Justin Taylor and Stephen Sanza but London coach Dale Hunter went with a gut and stuck big Leigh Salters out their instead of the Knights captain.

Ten seconds in, Sanza scored on a beauty feed from Salters.

"The first goal's huge," London assistant coach Jacques Beaulieu said. "At home, the crowd's sitting there waiting for something to happen and you give them something to cheer about. Now, you have to go in to their building and try to defend against that."

By scoring first, of course.

And planting the seeds of doubt in Maxwell's mind that the eight goals was more the rule, not an exception.

London Knights Leigh Salters, Nazem Kadri, and Scott Harrington celebrate Stepen Sanza's goal in game one against the Kitchener Rangers at the John Labatt Centre. (MORRIS LAMONT/ The London Free Press)